


Winter

by Psijay



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Holidays, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 16:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13127745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psijay/pseuds/Psijay
Summary: Zurich winters were rough. Jack knew this going in, of course, and had accepted it. He could’ve operated out of one of the warmer watchpoints (Watchpoint: Gibraltar sprang to mind immediately), but Zurich’s more central location was just too good to pass up. That being said—He kind of hated Zurich.





	Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Reaper76 Secret Santa](https://r76secretsanta.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! This is my gift for [Californiaboyreyes](http://californiaboyreyes.tumblr.com/). He requested something cute and holiday spirity. Hope you like it!

Zurich winters were rough. Jack knew this going in, of course, and had accepted it. He could’ve operated out of one of the warmer watchpoints (Watchpoint: Gibraltar sprang to mind immediately), but Zurich’s more central location was just too good to pass up. That being said—   
  
He kind of hated Zurich.   
  
In the middle of December, it was already coming close to 25 degrees fahrenheit during the day, snowing, and icy. And Jack was already tired of it.   
  
Even in his uniform, duster, and the beanie he’d stolen from Gabriel that morning, Jack shivered. Usually, he looked forward to the short walk back to their apartment. Between the fresh air and the time to think, sometimes it was the highlight of his day— except in winter. In winter, it became a chore. Bundling up to avoid as much of the cold as he could, ducking his head to keep the blowing snow out of his eyes, and scrubbing at his running nose until it was sore and red, was not his idea of a good time.   
  
He trudged through the door, stomping his boot-clad feet to get rid of the snow caked all over them. It hung on stubbornly. After the five minutes it took to take off all his gear (except Gabe’s hat), he finally made his way into the living room.   
  
Gabriel looked up as he walked in, smiling as he set down the datapad he’d been poring over. “Have a nice walk?” he asked.   
  
“You know it.” Jack groaned as he flopped down on the couch beside him. “God, I hate winter.”   
  
Gabe snatched the stolen hat from Jack’s head. “I thought I was missing one of these this morning.” He threw the hat over his shoulder, in the general direction of their bedroom. “And what’s wrong with winter?”   
  
Jack sighed as he settled into his seat, letting the warmth from the fire in front of him bring the color back to his cheeks. “You mean, besides ‘everything’? It’s cold, the snow is annoying, and there’s less sunlight.” He listed each point off on his fingers. “What’s there to like?”   
  
“I get to wear all my favorite hoodies when it’s cold, the snow is beautiful, and I’ll be on a mission in a desert next week, so I’ll appreciate the lack of sunlight while I can,” Gabe argued.   
  
“I’ll never understand how you can be a winter person, mister LA. You grew up in perpetual summer. Don’t you miss it?”   
  
Gabe shrugged. “Sure, sometimes. But perpetual summer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The heat gets exhausting after a while, and I’m not immune to sunburn, even after SEP. Balance is good. Fall and winter have all the best holidays, anyway.”   
  
Jack grimaced. “I’ve always been more of a Fourth of July kind of guy.”   
  
“‘Course you are, Captain America,” Gabriel snarked.   
  
Jack fixed him with a pretend glare, which Gabe ignored anyway.   
  
“Don’t you like Christmas?” Gabe asked after a pause. His brow furrowed. “I know we’ve celebrated it before, but if you’re not into it, we can do something else.”   
  
“That’s not it,” Jack promised. “Christmas is… more like an unfortunate casualty of the season. I have no problem with it in warmer climates. Why do you think I insist on celebrating it with your family back in LA?”   
  
Gabe stroked his beard thoughtfully. “I did wonder why we only visit your family in the summer.”   
  
“It’s because midwest winters are hell,” Jack went on. “It’s a snowy, empty nightmarescape, with no redeeming qualities, especially on the farm.” His expression soured even more. “Hard to make money on a farm when you can’t grow any crops.”   
  
“Okay, that’s fair. But you hate the farm even when you are growing things. What makes that any different?”   
  
Jack sighed, tilted his head to rest on Gabe’s shoulder. “I dunno. At least in the summertime, there was stuff to do. I could take a walk in the fields, or explore the nearby forest. Longer days meant more time outside, hiking or wandering. Winter is just long nights, spent inside, bored.” He shook his head.   
  
Gabe shuffled around a bit to make his shoulder a better pillow. “You still could’ve gone outside.”   
  
“Not without risking frostbite or hypothermia if I stayed out too long. With windchill, it could get dangerously cold out there.”   
  
“So, not much different than risking heatstroke every summer in LA,” Gabe concluded, arching an eyebrow.   
  
“Oh, right. Okay, I’ll give you that one.” He snuggled up closer, nuzzling into Gabe’s neck. Gabriel’s body heat chased away the rest of the cold from Jack’s wind-bitten face, and Jack basked in it. “Do you like living in Zurich?”   
  
Gabe nodded. Jack felt the gesture more than he saw it. “I do, actually. I wasn’t sure, at first. It seemed so different from anywhere I’ve lived before, but I love it. It’s nice living somewhere with seasons, for once.” He looped an arm around Jack’s waist, relaxed against him. “I do miss living on base with the rest of the team, though. Guess that’s not even possible anymore, since Ana has Fareeha, and Torb has his brood. Would be hard to work around a herd of kids.”   
  
Jack huffed out a laugh. “No kidding. It’s hard enough with Jesse and Lena. Imagine if they had a whole team of troublemaking five-to-fourteen year olds for backup.”   
  
“Oh, god, no.” Gabe buried his face in Jack’s hair, voice dripping with horror. “Not even as a joke.”   
  
“I miss that too, though,” Jack admitted. “Having the strike team family all in one place was nice.” He turned his head, bumped his nose against Gabriel’s. “But at least I still have you here with me.”   
  
Gabe grinned. “Glad I could be your consolation prize, Jackie.”   
  
Jack reached out to cup his face, running his thumb along one of the old scars on his cheek. “You’re the best consolation prize a guy could ask for.”   
  
Gabriel giggled, the sound a low rumble in his chest, and caught Jack’s lips in a quick kiss, which Jack returned enthusiastically.   
  
“It’ll be nice to get together with everybody for the holidays,” Jack remarked as they settled back comfortably into the couch cushions. Jack rested his head on Gabe’s chest, listened to his heartbeat.   
  
“Hopefully it’ll be better than last month’s friendsgiving,” Gabe grumbled.   
  
Jack stifled a laugh in Gabe’s shirt. “Oh, my god, I almost forgot about friendsgiving. We should be fine, though. Ana’s handling the refreshments, so I'm sure Reinhardt won’t bring any more of that… that crazy German liquor. What was it, again?”   
  
“Bärenjäger,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “So sweet everyone forgot it was vodka. Good times.”   
  
“Yeah, except for everyone without a super soldier metabolism.”   
  
Gabe tutted. “They didn’t know what hit them. Poor Jesse. I knew I should’ve held him to the American drinking age. Kid had a hangover for two days.”   
  
“Yikes. I’m pretty sure Ana knows better than to bring booze to this one,” Jack said. “Since Fareeha’s coming with her, and a lot of the younger agents will be there.”   
  
Gabe ran his hand up and down Jack’s back, laughing lightly. “Have you seen what Lena and Angie did to the rec room yet?”   
  
“No, what did they do?”   
  
He laughed louder, the hand not on Jack’s back coming up to stifle the noise. “Well, for starters: lights everywhere. I’m not sure there’s any space left on the walls. Hell, I don’t even know how we haven’t blown a circuit. They’ve got mistletoe hung everywhere, too— and they must’ve recruited Genji for that one, because some of it’s in places normal humans could never reach.”   
  
“But you know where it all is?”   
  
“Of course.”   
  
Jack smiled. “So you’ll catch me under every single one?”   
  
Gabe’s laughter exploded into full-blown cackling. “You have to ask? It’s like you don’t know me at all!”   
  
“Just making sure,” Jack promised, scooching up so he and Gabe were face to face. “It’s not Christmas if we’re not embarrassing the kids with our constant PDA.”   
  
“It’s just not us if we’re not embarrassing the kids with our constant PDA,” Gabe corrected.   
  
“You’ve got me there.” Jack placed a soft butterfly kiss on Gabe’s clavicle, where it barely peeked out above the collar of his shirt. He kissed the side of Gabe’s neck, lips resting just above his pulsepoint. He kissed Gabe’s jaw, wrinkling his nose to fight off the tickle of Gabe’s stubble.   
  
Gabriel stopped him there, nudged his face over for a full kiss on the lips, one perhaps a bit too intense for underneath the mistletoe.   
  
“I love you,” Gabe whispered against his lips. He bumped their noses together briefly before resting his forehead against Jack’s.   
  
“I love you too,” Jack sighed.   
  
He let his eyes fall shut, and instead focused on the warmth all around him. From Gabriel’s chest, where Jack rested his hands. From Gabe’s gentle hands rubbing his back. From the fireplace on the other end of the room, heat radiating from it as it flickered and crackled.   


Maybe winter was good for a few things, after all.


End file.
